Shell still had a fairly strong presence in America last time I was there. Lots of stations all over the place.

The USA is probably one of the few markets where it makes sense for them to maintain a retail presence. As cheaper petrol prices mean less incentive to buy EVs. And longer distances driven on average + the popularly of large pickup trucks + bigger temperature extremes + the krapi 110V domestic electrical systems + presidents who at best pay only lip service to climate change. All mean that it will be awhile before EVs become a large % of the USA fleet.

Compare that to NZ and quite a few European countries.

Edit to add.

And that is assuming that those stations are actually owned by Shell. Instead of being owned by someone else who has paid for the right to use Shell branding.

I was driving down to Tukini Ski Field from Auckland and back last week and pumped up for 1.97$ at Gull somewhere before Taupo. Was also surprised how the prices vary all around the place, most places getting close to Auckland prices even though they haven't got any Goofy tax.

Gull Atiamuri, it's one of the cheapest petrol stations in the country. Currently $2.12

I don't remember it being $2.40 in 1984 - are those figures adjusted to 2017 dollars?And with the first graph, do you have anything more recent? A lot has changed since last December (almost 12 months ago).

I have tried to keep in the loop with the happenings so please excuse me if I am mistaken....

The price of fuel is the direct response to what the current government is doing with the fuel tax ect but yet they act like they are not to blame but others are?

Not quite..several reasons fuel is high...our low dollar, the cost per barrel of crude.....plus

the extra taxes imposed by the Government.

Despite taxes making up over 80cents/litre the Government has come out strongly against fuel companies today. I would assume they are mad because of the effect on inflation and perhaps with hindsight they added extra taxes a bit too fast. As the price rises due to overseas reasons and our dollar dropping the gst take also increases.

MBIE do a weekly price monitor. It even has pretty graphs showing the amount of tax which is a pretty horrific proportion. Its not new. And it probably was something that was obvious before the last election but we'll wait until next year before any competition analysis is complete. It will be interesting to see if the reduction in the number of operators with Caltex being bought by Z Energy (and approved by the Commerce Commission despite the increase in concentration within the sector by the acquisition) has had any bearing on the increase in margin.

The forecast of $3/litre by Xmas is based on some pretty broad assumptions (Crude at USD100/barrel, currency at 62c) - such forecasting has been fraught with error in the past but it makes good headlines.

Kiwi dollar is looking to test the 50's, so the $3.00 estimate could be conservative.

Geektastic: Gull surely have no effect below Masterton where I think their most southerly outlet is?

The average price of 91 in Masterton is currrently $2.31 per litre, Greytown $2.31, Martinborough $2.33 and in Wellington it is $2.47 per litre. It would appear that Gull is influencing pricing in Wairarapa

Geektastic: If the government was that concerned, it could do something about it. Clearly, it isn't.

The government can't even decide if high fuel prices are a good thing or a bad thing. They didn't think anything of gifting more money to the Auckland council to waste on consultants and bureaucrats, via an extra fuel tax.

But now they have woken up to realising that extra fuel taxes hurt their core voter base the most. While spending on things like public transport, cycleways, EV subsidies etc. Benefit rich people the most.

quickymart: If they take off or remove a tax, how are roads going to be maintained, or new ones be built?

While I agree that we need fuel tax to pay for *roads* the government is milking that cow dry and then using the funds for other purposes with a slide of hand.

The are building a tram to benefit 0.1% of Auckland, but to appease their Green party overlords, throwing good money after bad on poorly thought out and implemented public transport solutions.

At the end of the day when the price rose as far as it has they are gaining in the GST tax grab, but they have the audacity to go head on with the fuel companies when they are the ones profiteering via the GST take.

To comment that they won't do anything about our part of the problem because the fuel companies might not pass on the reduction/saving literally stinks.

At the end of the day I can afford to absorb the price increase, there are many, and these are the people Labour says they stand up for that cannot.

Geektastic: Gull surely have no effect below Masterton where I think their most southerly outlet is?

The average price of 91 in Masterton is currrently $2.31 per litre, Greytown $2.31, Martinborough $2.33 and in Wellington it is $2.47 per litre. It would appear that Gull is influencing pricing in Wairarapa